Here's my Food Room--Share Yours!

[Angela]

Adventures in Self Reliance

Okay, I've rearranged since this tour so I could fit more in (unbelievable, I know), but here's some food room fun. Now don't be embarrassed to share yours!

Have you seen the pictures of some peoples' food storage rooms? I've been on a couple of other sites and forums and it seems they all look kind of like this (this is NOT my food room):


Beautiful large spaces filled with immaculately organized food and plenty of room to walk the aisle to get to it all. Kind of like a mini grocery store. Amazing. I'm always a bit jealous of places like that.

I, on the other hand, have never had a big ol' room I could dedicate entirely to food storage (bummer), so have had to make do with what I have. Right now that is a 7 1/2 foot by 6 foot room that used to be a coal room so it has a cement floor and no heat. We also use our "furnace" room for food and under beds and in closets etc. Now I LOVE that I finally have a room to put food in, it sure beats trying to put it ALL under beds and in closets. But I HATE that my room is so little--I'd sure love to have about 3 times the space!

So today, we'll have a little fun at my expense and I'll take you on a tour of my "food room", but you can't actually come in--there's no room for you in there and I don't have liability insurance in case something comes down on your head while you're balancing on a bucket . . .

(No, I'm not storing giant numbers--what could I cook with those?!) This first picture is of the left side of the room. You might have already noticed the stark contrasts between my room and the example room at the top of the post. My room is small, packed kind of randomly, and there is NO aisle. In fact, you can hardly see the floor and I have to move stuff or climb on buckets to get anything from the back of the room. The shelves are also really deep, so I put bottles of water at the back of some of them so the food is more to the front. So here's what's on the left side of the room:

1. This used to be where I kept my canners, extra pots, jars, etc. but they all had to move out to other random locations in the house and shop. Now there's bottled goods in boxes there.

2. Shelf with primarily tomato products--tomato juice, sauce, paste, bottled tomatoes, etc.

3. Shelf with randomness on it that was supposed to be vegetables, but when hubby thought I was overloading the shelf with vegetables and it might break, he moved some of the vegetables off the shelf and put my chocolate fountain that hardly weighs anything in the middle of the shelf instead.

4. Shelf with mostly ready to eat meals--spaghettio's, canned soups, more spaghettio's, mac n cheese, pastas, enchilada sauce, olives, a bit of whatever.

5. The floor, except it's covered with food and stuff. Under all the shelves are buckets two deep. Not sure what's in them all any more. A few more buckets on the floor in the middle plus cases of canned veggies, etc that couldn't find another home. Sack of potatoes, grocery sacks with food that needed to go to the food room, but didn't get put on the shelf once it got there.

6. Bottled meat in boxes.

7. Shelf with spices, seasonings, flavorings, ketchup, baking basics (corn starch, baking powder, etc.)

8. Shelf with random stuff that was too tall to fit on the other shelves, plus the veggies that hubby moved from shelf 3.

Claustrophobic yet? No? Okay we'll check out the other side of the room.

I had to break this side up because I couldn't get far enough back to get the whole side in one picture. We'll start at top back corner. Now, the corners are where I stick all the super long term storage stuff I don't want to get to (like the powdered milk I needed for my emergency food bars last week--felt like it took me 2 hours to find it and get a can out!). I'm not going to discuss what's in every corner--I really don't remember what it is, but it's stuff like wheat, beans, freeze dried fruits/veggies/meals, mre's etc.


1. Toilet paper. Really like having toilet paper.


2. Bottled deer meat, canning lids, random cooking needs (yeast, spray oil). Oh yeah, that's a little cub scout style buddy burner there as well.

3. A couple of cases of oats plus more Toiletries!!!

4. Same shelf as the last picture with the baking stuff--now cocoa, more cornstarch, salt, etc.

5. Total random shelf. Jams, drink mixes, some dehydrated stuff.

6. Oh, wait, there is no 6.

Next section: This is right under the last picture in the room.



1. Bottled water, baking soda, hubby's corn chips, randomness.

2. The action packer that used to be in my husband's truck for work and now it's in the food room. There is food in it, so I guess it's okay.

3. The floor again. Sack o sugar that hasn't found a bucket on top of a box that has winter squash in it, sack o onions (a few are starting to try to grow--guess I'll be drying onions here one of these days), oil, vinegar, more water.

4. Shelf that was supposed to be fruits, but got taken over by a case of bottled meat. Some applesauce, etc on it anyway.

5. Protein shelf--mostly canned beans.

6. Our 72 hour kits--really, how are we supposed to get to those in a hurry???

7. The deep dark corner where I finally found the powdered milk.

Crazy, isn't it??? How do you rotate with a system like that you ask? It's actually quite easy--We try to move every few years and then we unload the boxes and put the old stuff in the front. Okay, it's not a very good system . . . especially since we won't be moving from this place any time soon.

On to the last wall, the right side of the room:



1. More TP (plus some china behind it--you know when things get rough we'll be wanting to break out the china).

2. This kind of runs with shelf 4--heat, light, kitchen tools (apple peeler, potato masher, hand meat grinder, etc). Firestarters, matches, lightsticks, candles, lamp oil, ziplocks, foil, the games we don't want the kids getting into and losing the pieces . . .

3. Complete random shelf. Some food, some toys that got taken away and had to go to "toy time out".

4. See shelf 2 plus vitamins.

5. You might think that is a mystery sack, but I'm pretty sure it has garden seeds in it.

6. What? No 6 again??

This picture is right under the last picture in the room.



1. Supposed to be fruit shelf--we're a bit short on canned fruits, so I've shoved other stuff there to fill the gap.

2. More on the protein shelf--Peanut butter, canned chicken, tuna, sugar because there was a gap on the shelf and I had a sack of sugar that needed somewhere to go.

3. Yeah, I already discussed this area--mostly canned beans.

4. Discussed this also--Emergency kits (the kids' are under their beds). I know, I know, they should be in the coat closet by the front door or in the pantry by the back door ready to go somewhere. Trouble is, not only do we not have a coat closet by the front door, we don't have a coat closet at all, and that pantry by the back door? It doesn't exist either. In fact, we only have a front door and a sliding glass kitchen door. No back door at all. So if you want to come tour my house and find me a place that I can put my emergency kits where they'd be accessible, and I wouldn't be tripping over them, I'd be glad for any suggestions, but in all my 4 years of living here I haven't found that place yet.

5. Already covered this, too. Bunch o stuff on the floor (it does stay colder that way--yeah, it's on the floor on purpose).

Now, don't you feel better about your food storage space? Or maybe it's just as cramped and bad as mine!


For those of you who don't think I have everything I need in there, you're right. There's stuff I have that just wouldn't fit in that room--no way no how, so it's scattered through other places in our little house. AND there's a lot I want that I don't have anywhere yet . . . still working on it.



For those of you with LESS space than I have (I've lived there, too), get creative and find ways to stuff food into whatever space you have. In the meantime, anyone want a job remodeling a food room? ;-)

[maroonlady]

If it makes you feel any better, my house looks like a Bishops Store House that has been turned upside down and given a good shake or two. I too have a small house and my years supply ++ has kind of taken over, but even in the overflow, I know pretty much where everything is and at least I have it at home. Kind of figure when things fall apart, I might have time to organize then. Too busy now. Yes, you become very creative building things out of your food storage. Now am running out of floor room upon which to build, and when you find that home decorator that can do something with food storage, let me know, I sure am interested. Thanks for making the rest of us feel normal.

[Imamom]

Maroonlady,

That's my hope too...that when the storms finally arrive en force I'll be able to take the time to organize everything. Right now I can't even open the door to my storage area to take pictures. I just cleaned the upstairs of my home and all the clothes that are off season or inbetween sizes for my children got bagged up and tossed down there for organizing at a later date.

My storage looks about like Angela's!

[lilyloohoo]

I was laughing soooooo hard when I read this that I was practically rolling on the floor! Of course, I was NOT laughing AT you, but WITH YOU!!!

I have seen this look for randomness before...IN MY OWN FOOD STORAGE AREA!!! However, I recently challenged the family that if they would help roll up the sleeves and work, I would SERIOUSLY take their opinions on how to organize (hard for me since I am a high-functioning control freak). It worked and I have never been happier!!! However, I will say that I enjoyed that the family needed me desperately before when they could find nothing due to my random system. It was nice to be called upon to help things out. Under the new, organized system, I am unneeded. At least I know they love me still!!!

Thanks for the smile today and I LOVE YOUR room!!! It makes me feel at home!!!